Ugly
by ThePhauxnix
Summary: Hermione has everything she could want; Ministry career, great friends, owns her own flat...yet one Draco Malfoy stopping by her office can show her that everything has become so...
1. Chapter 1

_May 3, 1999_

* * *

Hermione Granger always wanted to travel.

Not in a tent with two boys fleeing for their life type of travel, but the kind with an itinerary and maps.

Dining in actual restaurants.

With seats and a roof.

Maybe with the two boys too, if they were amenable.

The thought had sprung up insistently last night during the Ministry-funded party commemorating the first year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.

The fall of Voldemort, that mad, psychotic…

Back to thinking about travel.

To do so would require funds.

To get the funds she had to work.

In that regard, Hermione was doing quite well. She had accepted the offer from the Minister to begin in the Magical Law Enforcement department shortly after N.E.W.T.'s. Kingsley promised he'd switch her to Magical Creatures when most of the issues in MLE were resolved.

Apparently she should've paid more attention to the wording. It was a never-ending flow of petitions, deadlines, invitations to network, complaints, employee reviews...

Her desk was as neat as all the papers and frames would allow. She had a color coded calendar charmed to the wall to her right, with nary a blank space to be seen.

Hermione had carefully placed a handful of pictures on her desk. One was of her parents, the other was of the twins mugging for the camera, clipped out of an article announcing the success of their store.

She also, defiantly, framed a copy of the original Order of the Phoenix.

Their waving hands caught her eye, and she spied a young Remus Lupin tiredly smiling. Instead of returning to her work at hand, and there was a great deal of it, she looked at the next picture.

It was Ginny and Tonks. Photo Tonks switched between a Snape nose, a button nose, and a pig nose. Caught in an eternal loop, they both laughed at her warmly and silently.

The last was of Colin Creevey next to a clearly uncomfortable Harry, who kept eyeing the escape routes while the eleven-year old Muggleborn beamed for all he was worth.

Suddenly she rose up and swept everything onto the ground.

They all fell in distant metal thunks and sharp tinkles of glass, followed by the soft flutter of parchment.

Hermione immediately sank to her knees, hands hovering over the the broken frames. Glass glittered all around.

She wept on the floor of her office.


	2. Chapter 2

_May 9, 1999_

* * *

Draco Malfoy found himself at The Burrow.

Which was dirty, dingy, and a gnome ran over his foot while he stood on the border of what he presumed was a garden.

In his arms was a wrapped box with a big bow that flickered from one color to the next.

His father and he were the only living Death Eaters who weren't taking a lifelong vacation in Azkaban. He was still wealthy beyond all measure, despite the Ministry's ridiculous Death Eater tax. Not its official title, but that's what it was.

Mother was… well, she would be fine.

She was the entire reason he was here, after all.

Draco walked up and knocked on the door firmly, hearing the babble of many voices mingling. He knocked again for good measure.

The door opened suddenly, Loony Lovegood stood there with a garland of green betony askew on her head. "Draco! I haven't seen you since I was in your dungeon."

"Right. Hello," he couldn't imagine a more awkward greeting. Except getting Stunned. That would be far more awkward.

He glanced past her. Redheads were interspersed in the crowd like fungi after a rain.

"I'll show you where to put the present." Loony grabbed his sleeve and began to walk.

It wasn't a tight grip. Draco could have pulled away but didn't, considering this was the nicest greeting he was going to get.

As people saw him the volume died abruptly. Oh it wasn't completely silent, but Draco wished it was. He could make out the occasional word and while it wasn't angry, it wasn't flattering either.

"Here!" Luna gestured proudly to the wood table groaning with gifts.

Before he could set the package down and escape, someone took exception to his presence. "Seriously, Malfoy?"

Draco immediately checked he still had his wand in his sleeve, expecting to see Weasley King. But he was surprised to turn and see Percy.

"I wasn't aware anyone invited you," he said coldly.

Regaining his mental footing, Draco set the gift down resolutely. "I am related to the birthday boy."

"More the pity to him."

Percy walked away without another word, undoubtedly to alert the other self-righteous pillocks about the interloper.

Draco kept waiting for someone to actually ask him why he was here. He had an answer all ready.

It was still a shock when he saw her.

Andromeda.

So this is what aunt Bella might have looked like had she not been mad.

His mother's sister was holding his second cousin? third cousin? Teddy. He was much tinier than Draco thought he might be.

Cute though, despite the garish red hair on his head.

He wore a blue jumper and pants with a big sailboat on the front.

Nobody seemed to notice Draco anymore. They were all loudly chattering and laughing. He stood in a pocket of space with everyone's back turned, ignored.

By the time Andromeda made her way to the other side of the room, he was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

_May 10, 1999_

* * *

Harry Potter knew people were capable of horrible things.

There was literally no end to the evidence of that very fact. Petty criminals, aspiring conmen, drunk brawlers. He had a new Mundungus Fletch, and it made Harry ill how many small illegal acts he had to overlook nab the next aspiring big time wizard.

Nothing like Voldemort.

Still, people were being hurt and betrayed, and as an Auror he handled it. His biggest case was some brilliant bastard who was passing off fraudulent galleons. Hundreds of wizards and witches complaining. His smallest was a twelve year old who lit firecrackers in the middle of Diagon Alley. Three adults and one child injured, fixed up at St. Mungo's.

It went on and on. The intellectual challenge of solving the few was overshadowed by the repetition of attending to the blatantly stupid 'act first, think later' mentality.

Investigation, trial, Azkaban. Hermione suggested a type of community service. Harry would have agreed with her once upon a time. Now all he could see was liars and cheats, and he wished he could lock them in Azkaban forever.

He had it on excellent authority he could be Head Auror the minute his five year anniversary hit.

Harry dreaded the day.

Thank Merlin Ginny was coming back next week. He missed her while she was doing Holyhead Harpies' training.

It was his first week being alone at Grimmauld Place. Ron was staying in the flat above the shop, and Hermione had just bought her own place.

Everybody else seemed to be going so well for everyone that Harry dared not complain, lest one breath blow it all away like dandelion fluff.


	4. Chapter 4

_May 11, 1999_

* * *

Ron Weasley watched as another brother slowly died.

The First Years who came into the shop seemed so little. Was he ever that young? By the time he was straddling a giant chess piece and facing down an axe the size of a wizard Ron had felt six feet tall. Not immediately after, mind.

His idea of innocent days involved trolls, three headed dogs and Forbidden Forests.

Now he stood behind the counter of the twins shop and watched the remaining one fade. Ron went through three dragonhide gloves, four sets of eyebrows, and some teeth while helping everyone replicate the stock until he could do it on his own.

George stood behind the counter with blue eyes as empty as marbles and gave smiles as fake as the galleons that hit the streets two months ago. Harry warned him about that, and Hermione set up a detection system. He wished she came around more.

Right. George.

There were no more new inventions.

Sometimes Ron wondered if it had hurt more than helped when the trio worked to reopen the store.

"I'm going to step out for a bite. Want anything?"

"I don't care." George shrugged, wiping a spotless area on the counter.

Right. Ron reached for the takeout scrolls instead, both resigned and terrified.


	5. Chapter 5

May 2, 2000

* * *

 _The 'Victory Ball' was a brutal farce, a fucking travesty._

 _There was no victory that day._

 _And though there were people within hearing distance, the thought kept repeating over and over that one spell would fix everything._

 _One Unforgivable spell._

Over and over again...


	6. Chapter 6

_May 14, 1999_

* * *

A sharp knocking on Hermione's door interrupted her thoughts.

They were self-pitying anyway. She had been doing that a lot the last few days.

 _The past year, if she were honest with herself_.

She magically unlocked the door, which shut down the pleasant little voice which informed those knocking on her door that she was unavailable.

Implementing an open door policy had nearly destroyed her during the first month of being an assistant to the Director. The issue had been "solved" when she came storming out of her office and had the epic Halloween Meltdown, as it was still referred to to this day.

The door opened, and she nearly recoiled. Hermione did not need _Draco Malfoy_ today.

He was still pale as ivory, his platinum hair and silver eyes giving the impression she had found the polar opposite of Dementors. But instead of sucking up others' pain, he caused it with his presence.

"What can I do for you, Malfoy?" She could be civil if she tried.

Malfoy closed the door behind him, smiling nastily. Or maybe it was his pleasant smile' she'd just never seen it on his face before.

"Granger. I have a proposition."

No preamble then.

She would return the favor.

"No." Hermione picked up a sheath of parchment to shuffle in it. She wasn't pretending to work, everything on her desk was priority at this point.

"You asked what you can do for me," he sounded annoyed; she refused to look up.

"A rhetorical question at best, Malfoy. You can see yourself out." Bestowing a polite smile at him, she waited.

Malfoy stared at her, fingers pausing on the latch.


	7. Chapter 7

_May 14, 1999_

* * *

No.

Draco would not just tuck tail and run. He'd spent a year stepping back in a way that would shame his father deeply if he ever found out.

His hand dropped from the knob and he turned around.

"I expected you to be the reasonable one."

Granger flicked a glance at him, brown eyes sparking with anger. "The reasonable one? Out of _who_ , pray tell?"

Draco was quite adept at reading people. He knew exactly how to get under someone's skin for his benefit.

Not so much the reverse with people like her.

Granger stood up. A shame her hair wasn't down, it would make her look bigger when angry.

"If you want help, Malfoy, I suggest you ask Harry. He'll help just about _anyone_ if you present him with a sob story." The disdain could drown a lesser man.

He snorted. "Potter isn't clever like you. Earnest, but not cunning or dirty."

She narrowed her eyes. "Are you asking me to break rules for you?"

"Merlin Granger, don't get prissy. I've read Skeeter's _Year of Solitude_ where she details out the lurid blackmail of herself by an 'ugly, jumped-up schoolgirl'. And, if you recall, I overheard you talking about it fourth year."

Hermione pressed her lips together like she might say it was for a good cause but couldn't. That was a parchment-thin defense at best.

That was why he was asking her. She wasn't the bleeding heart of the trio. She'd probably done things in her Hogwarts years that would alternately shock and arouse him.

Hermione sat back down, threading her fingers together.

"Talk."


End file.
